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ELI5: Why did LED notification lights silently got removed from phone? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 years ago by zephyr@lemmy.world to c/explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world

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They were a good indicator for notifications that are missed when you were away from phone.

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[-] thelsim@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 years ago

I'm guessing that with everything they cram into those things nowadays, every last nook and cranny is valuable space to be used.
A little blinken light is probably not high on the list of features competing for that space.

[-] Iridium@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

iPhones use the camera flash LED for this exact function, no reason Android phones can’t do the same.

[-] Coreidan@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

No it does not. The led flash occurs when the message is sent. It doesn’t persist. The entire point the notification led on Samsung phones is to tell you repetitively that you have an unread message.

That means if you look at your phone an hour after you received the message you’ll know you have an unread message without having to interact with the phone. It’s a nice feature for someone that doesn’t like constantly checking their phone.

Besides the flash led is super obnoxious. I can’t imagine why you’d want this flashing every time you get a message. I can’t imagine it being great for battery life either.

[-] HungryKoala@feddit.de 5 points 2 years ago

On Samsung phones your whole screen flashes in a custom color and and animation, and after that you have your always on display. So they are no longer needed with OLED screens that can display it themselves

[-] zephyr@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

That seems to me a waaay too inefficient indicator of "you have unread notifications"

[-] HungryKoala@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago

Idk why? I like it to see the clock on the always on display, but you can also change it so you just have a small red pixels lit up, to mirror the "notification led style". You can style the aod like you want on Android

[-] Thorny_Thicket@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 years ago

Just bought Galaxy XCover 6pro. Lost many features I had in my previous phone. Kept removable battery and headphone jack. Gained notification led.

Can't say I really missed it tho. I'd trade it for an optical image stabilizer.

[-] tempest@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 years ago

The nothing phone has led glyph indicators on the back.

[-] LightDelaBlue@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

i am still mad they got rid of it on xiaomi note 10 pro.... i mean yhea you can activate a thing for show notification on the screen but slurp slurp the batery. (and future burn in)

[-] ecks90@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

My phone still has the LED but I turned off the feature long ago including the battery low and charge indicators. More annoying than useful.

[-] Lianrepl@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

I hate the LED and I'm so glad my current phone doesn't have it. It's especially the charging indicator that bothers me because it's so bright at night

[-] skillissuer@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

what the hell are you talking about

[-] noughtnaut@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

For just a fraction of a second I considered showing you, by taking a screen shot... 🤦 I'm my defence, I'm suppressed to be asleep now.

Many phones used to have - some still have - a separate LED facing you that could light up to notify you of, uh, notifications. The first generation android phones just had green LEDs, eventually they all supported colour as well. Some OS'es or apps enabled you to set up per-app colour, blink/fade, and pattern configurations. Super neat, I was a huge fan.

On most modern phones [such apps] (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rageconsulting.android.lightflow) rarely work anymore, but on my OnePlus 5 I still have different colours for different notifications.